"Israel is a source of threats. Any country that can attack its neighbors is a source of threats. There has to be a feeling of security, and we do not use a language of confrontation and aggression," Bahrain's Crown Prince Shaikh Salman told journalists on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue.
"We want to build relations of mutual trust and respect," he added. "We have seen numerous wars and we do not wish to see another war in the region."
Top Persian Gulf officials have described Israel as the regional threat in reaction to the US Defense Secretary's anti-Iran remarks.
Minutes after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates rejected a suggestion that a nuclear-armed Israel would be a threat to Persian Gulf countries and dismissed claims that Washington employed double standards over Iran and the Zionist regime, Senior Persian Gulf officials insisted that Tel Aviv was the threat, gulfnews.com reported.
"Israel is a source of threats. Any country that can attack its neighbors is a source of threats. There has to be a feeling of security, and we do not use a language of confrontation and aggression," Bahrain's Crown Prince Shaikh Salman told journalists on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue.
"We want to build relations of mutual trust and respect," he added. "We have seen numerous wars and we do not wish to see another war in the region."
In a speech immediately following Gates' remarks at the conference, Qatar's Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jasem Bin Jabr Al Thani had also refused to consider Iran as the enemy and said, "Iran is an important neighbor that cannot be seen as an enemy."
PGCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al Attiyah had also said that Gates' statement that Israel did not represent any threat was 'biased politics that reflected a determination to hold onto double standards'.
